Linking and learning

Legal OnRamp, the expanding knowledge-sharing platform for in-house lawyers and their firms, recently launched its first FirmRamp − a practice-specific option for a firm’s own clients.

News
Mourant and Ozannes to merge
OFFSHORE LAW firms Mourant du Feu & Jeune and Ozannes have announced plans for a full economic merger of their businesses effective as of May 2010.

News
Shoosmiths creates consumer brand
UK LAW firm Shoosmiths has separated its consumer offering from the bulk of the firm’s business, with a new brand identity and website specifically marketing services such as conveyancing, employment law and wills.

Editor's letter
Trial or error?

Feature
Opinion: Hard lessons learnt
With a new year comes the hope of a brighter outlook for many professional practices, and for some, closure on possibly the hardest financial years that some practices have ever faced.

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Granting space
Reed Smith wanted its new, award-winning intranet to drive greater firm-wide usage through screen appearances that were carefully tailored to an individual’s priorities.

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The real deal flow
On joining online forum Legal OnRamp, Swedish law firm Vinge recently provided all members of the group with an insight into its ‘Deal Tracker’ project to maximise relevant information-sharing activities. Allowing for more sophisticated trend analysis than before, the firm also finds the initiative has benefited business development.

Feature
The backup business
Increasingly, law firms need to demonstrate to their clients they are capable of continuing to deliver the high levels of service they have come to expect in the event of a disaster.

News
Regulator advises abolishing ARP
PRIMARY LEGAL watchdog The Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) has suggested winding down the assigned risk pool (ARP), which provides insurance to law firms unable to find it themselves in the open market.

Feature
Q&A: Spring Law
Formerly a lawyer at both Simmons & Simmons and Denton Wilde Sapte, in 2002 Tim Perry founded Spring Law as an alternative to the traditional law firm partnership structure. He tells Richard Brent why he now expects to welcome a new wave of disenchanted or displaced talent.

News
Clyde & Co hires team for New Jersey opening
INTERNATIONAL LAW firm Clyde & Co has opened an office in New Jersey following the lateral hire of two partners from US law firm Connell Foley.

News
Allen & Overy opens in Australia
MAGIC-CIRCLE law firm Allen & Overy (A&O) has hired 17 new partners to launch its first presence in Australia in March 2010.

News
Survey: Firms failing corporate counsel expectations
ALMOST THREE-QUARTERS (71 per cent) of US corporate clients think their law firms are doing too little to adapt to the aftermath of the economic crisis, according to a new report.

Special
Profile: Reed Smith
Reed Smith’s Gregory B. Jordan has now led the 15th largest law firm in the world through the whole of this first decade of a turbulent 21st Century. He was returned to take up his fourth successive term as global managing partner in 2009.

Feature
Opinion: Virtually reality
By looking at the fundamental costs of a law firm through a different lens, and by being prepared to challenge all of the taken-for-granted assumptions about what a firm needs to be credible in the client’s eyes, a new, still nascent model had been created.

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Opening up
Six-office law firm Stanley Tee LLP has implemented open source and virtualisation technology, deploying Novell solutions to form an architecture that supports both Linux and Microsoft systems.

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Social working: portrait of a new intranet
The magic-circle law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer recently opted to transform its intranet in an attempt to increase collaboration across diverse teams using an Enterprise 2.0 social business tool.

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Survey: The legal profession 2020
Fast Futures is working with Governments, banks and global law firms (to mention only a few clients) to identify global future trends.

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Room for a better view
Fee-earner mobile working options at Freeth Cartwright include the digital dictation of documents from their bank of Blackberry smartphones. Already improving billing efficiency and accuracy, the next step is now to offer access to greater case-related information through a single work environment.

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Going paperless
Fenwick & West LLP’s ‘paperless’ office project stands the law firm in good stead for advising clients on the most appropriate document management, retention/destruction and security policies for their own data stores.

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Overheads out
Woolley & Co is one law firm that has committed itself to fully outsourcing business-support functions, including marketing efforts and legal software.